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No, I do understand that.

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It's not a big deal. That's my point. His talk was meaningless. He is in no position to help kids with anything.

A fifteen minute chit-chat about "staying in school or whatever" will have no impact compared to their consumption of his music, lyrics, media presence, image, etc., or that of their family and neighborhood. If he rapped about staying in school, etc., then that would help. Is that the Fat Joe message?

This is not about hip hop. If the school brought in Michelle Rodriquez, I would say the same thing. She dropped out of Jersey City schools (GED maybe?) and carried her negativity with her from Girl Fight to Fast/ Furious to SWAT, etc. She has also been sentenced to nearly a year in jail for DUIs, etc. That is an example of what not to do; she is not a equipped to tell kids what to do right/ different, except to say "don't do what I did."

I know Hudson County has better examples for kids.

The point you fail to grasp is that kids like Fat Joe. They don't give a crap about what Mr. Master's Degree says. They are going to be more interested and more apt to listen to someone they respect and admire (even if that admiration is questionable - they're kids). If Fat Joe is encouraging kids to go to school and get an education, what's the big deal.

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Fat Joe Disses 50 Cent & 50 Cent Disses Right Back Too - Funny bloopers are a click away The schools should bring in speakers who worked hard in school and have become successful because of hard work and education. "Cartagena confessed he wasn't a good student when he had the chance. But his good fortune, he said, isn't something most kids can count on." That means his insights about school are meaningless and very likely uninspiring in the long run. What he communicates in his songs, though, may well be. And what message is that?

Wow hes an idiot. Ironically I met him in a supermarket in Edgewater(not a fancy one) late one night and he lives up to his name. Though he insults mechanics and bakers yet the mechanic put the 22's on his car and owns the custom shop and the bakers of the world are getting tv deals like "cake boss" and "ace of cakes."

The schools should have him there to talk about fat entertainers who die of heart attacks and not on education.

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Sure, he is a product of the public school system. And if you're implying that the hip hop culture is completely negative, it is not all what you see in the media.

Anyone else find it humorous that he decides to talk about baking and donuts?

Just sayin...

Is a rapper really the type of luminary a public school should hire to speak? Don't we spend a good deal of education funds in attempts to counteract the influence of this culture?

Rapper Fat Joe talks up education at Jersey City school

by Tom Shortell/ The Jersey Journal
Thursday June 11, 2009, 7:26 PM

Rapper Fat Joe talks up the benefits of education at School 5 in Jersey City today.

Students at School 5 in Jersey City nearly jumped out of their seats today when rapper Fat Joe sauntered on to the auditorium stage.

Making a surprise visit as part of a "School is Cool" assembly, Fat Joe, whose real name Joseph Cartagena, urged the students to commit themselves to learning.

"I can buy a watch, they can take it. I can buy a car, I can crash it. But an education, they can't ever take that away from you," said Cartagena, a South Bronx native most famous for his hit Lean Back.

Cartagena confessed he wasn't a good student when he had the chance. But his good fortune, he said, isn't something most kids can count on.

"You can take a man without an education and he can become a mechanic or a baker, and he can know everything about baking and do it for 22 years. But that's as far as he's ever going to go," Cartagena said.

"The man who gets an education doesn't have to know a thing about baking. He doesn't have to know how to make a donut, but he becomes his boss. That's the difference about having an education," he said.

The assembly was organized by Suraj Kaufman, the former owner of Sneaker Room, a now closed sneaker boutique in Downtown Jersey City. Kaufman, who knows Cartagena from sneaker shows said he wanted to encourage kids to excel in school.

"Hopefully, today is a small kickoff to a way bigger event," said Kaufman, who has a son at the elementary school.

Students seemed to take Cartagena's message to heart.

"It was great he came because I'm kinda like him. I'm struggling in school," said Brian John, a sixth-grader. "Hearing him talk to me makes me want to do better."